


The Tail of Finalizer

by DustOnBothSides



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Fox Armitage Hux, Fox!Hux, M/M, Proper Tail Care, tail, unexpected consequences
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-28
Updated: 2020-01-01
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:48:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21994747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DustOnBothSides/pseuds/DustOnBothSides
Summary: A series of short, lighthearted, and largely unconnected episodes set on board of theFinalizer, centered around the foxy General Armitage Hux, the Supreme Leader Kylo Ren, and others.
Relationships: Armitage Hux/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Armitage Hux/Kylo Ren
Comments: 13
Kudos: 67





	1. A Power to be Feared

**Author's Note:**

> Proper tail care is important. Emphasis on _proper_.

A POWER TO BE FEARED

_Finalizer_ , the _Resurgent_ -class Star Destroyer of the First Order, was known for several things. The fact that it was the seat of the Supreme Leader and his Knights, the perfect discipline and morale of every single crewmember down to the last janitor, and last but not least, the glorious, fluffy tail of red with a shadow of black and a white tip purer than the virgin snowdrifts of Hoth. It came in a set with a pair of proud ears and one General Hux. 

No one dared to mention his non-human features in conversations, but high-ranking officers as well as the meanest of maintenance workers all liked to look at this tail, at the way it swished excitedly or wagged ever so slightly, or froze completely, or bristled with irritation. Even the ship’s captain, Edrison Peavey, followed that tail with his eyes at times, wondering how would it feel like to run his bare hand over the lustrous fur. 

And as for the Supreme Leader - only his Knights knew how Kylo Ren felt about the sight. Only they knew that sometimes, when General Hux sank into a deep, oft troubled sleep, their Master would extend his reach through the force and gently pet the fuzzy extremity. And only Kylo knew how lovely Hux would sigh then as he’d uncurl from the tight ball he usually slept in. They were aware, however, that Master valued the General and his tail very highly, even though he never said anything out loud, especially not in front of the person in question. 

Trudgen Ren thought it was cute. 

Ap’lek Ren thought it was stupid. 

One day, however, the unthinkable happened. 

The officers’ mess hall was packed with the crew enjoying their lunch. 

Especially loud in their enjoyment were the Knights, but no one had the belly to tell them to keep it down. Not after Captain Peavey had found himself head-first in a pot of split pea soup for attempting to do so that one time. 

Cardo Ren was telling a very funny story about a tauntaun, a frozen Rebel corpse, and a block of licking salt. It made his comrades laugh so hard, they clutched their bellies and pounded the table. Then came the part about the unfortunate accident with a kyber crystal. Vircul Ren burst into another peal of laughter... and hit his mug of jogan juice with his elbow. 

“What is this-?!” he heard a startled yell, and when he turned around, he froze, as did the rest of the mess hall. 

Behind him sat General Hux. 

General Hux with jogan juice, dripping from his tail. 

The laughter immediately stopped, replaced by a frantic conversation through the force. 

_“Vircul, you_ idiot _!”_

_“I’m sorry, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to do that!”_

_“Master will be angry.”_

_“We’re all at fault.”_

_“We have to make this better.”_

_“Yes, all of us.”_

“We can fix this!”

“Yes, let’s fix this!” 

The last two sentences were spoken out loud, and all of the Knights got up as one. 

A second later-

“Unhand me right this moment!” the General yelled as he was being escorted out of the hall by the sextet of Knights. 

“Master will be angry that we defiled you.”

“That you _what?_ ”

“We will fix this.”

“We are good at fixing this.”

“No, unhand me, you brutes!”

“Master has a big bathroom.”

“We’ll fix you before anyone notices.”

_“Unhand me this very moment!”_

But no matter how loud the General yelled or how much he squirmed, he was practically carried by the Knights into Kylo Ren’s quarters and deposited into the bathroom. His only victory was that he prevented the Knights to take off his jodhpurs. Though he protested and hissed like an angry nexu, his tail was completely soaked in lukewarm water, rubbed with soap, rinsed, soaped again, rinsed once more, and vigorously rubbed with three towels. 

“No, you can’t do it _like this_ , you _ignorant_ fools!” the General objected as Kylo’s high-class hair dryer imported from Naboo was switched on and turned on its highest setting. 

Vircul Ren was handling the appliance, but suddenly-…

Everything was gone. The world vanished. The fan was yanked out of his hands and the Knight was swallowed up by a tsunami of ginger fur. 

It was everywhere. An ocean of fluff. Vircul couldn’t tell where up and down was. He was drowning in velvety softness. It filled up the whole room, the entire quarters wall to wall, floor to ceiling. Kuruk and Ushar’s helmets were caught on it, Ap’lek Ren tried to swim in it upside down, Trudgen was rendered helpless and blind by all three towels tangled around him. 

“Damn bucket-brains.” Vircul Ren heard the muffled words of the angry General. “If you don’t know how to handle it, don’t even try.”

“We have to contact Master to-…” Ap’lek tried to suggest, but his constant swimming motions caused a current in the fur, which slammed him head-first against Cardo. 

“Silence. You’ve done enough. As if Ren knew any better.”

General Hux then took out his comm-link. 

“Lieutenant Mitaka, bring my products to Supreme Leader’s quarters. It is most urgent.”

The next several minutes were perhaps the longest in Vircul Ren’s life. Since the hair dryer was still on, the flood grew denser and denser. It began to blot out even the Knight’s connection to the force. Everything was ginger with an occasional dusting of black or a gleam of white. He couldn’t see anything else, couldn’t smell anything but soap and a faint hint of sweet musk. He knew that it wouldn’t take long before he’d suffocate. 

But then, just as he wanted to pray and beg his mother for forgiveness, he was suddenly released. With a thud. The force returned to him and with it his sight and hearing. He got up, stroking his throbbing backside he had landed on, and looked around. 

General Hux was sitting on a stool, brushing his once again obedient tail into shape. Behind him stood the mousy Lieutenant Mitaka, holding a box with bottles of conditioner, fur balm, powder, and nurturing oil. 

Hux shot them a grumpy look as he handed the brush to his Lieutenant, satisfied with his tail’s condition. 

“I told you. It is not something you can handle.” He repeated, his cheeks slightly red. “Now if you excuse me, I have a fleet to lead.” And with that he turned around and left the room, followed by Mitaka. Just before the door slid shut, Hux’s tail made one last, perfect swish.

As Vircul Ren helped the others to untangle Trudgen, he realised that the General was far more dangerous than any of them suspected. 

“It is a power to be feared.” Cardo Ren muttered grimly, and the others nodded in agreement.


	2. A Shocking Turn of Events

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The tides of Fortune shift eternally (but it generally favoures the resourceful).

Kylo paced there and back, clenching and unclenching his fists. His rage was a red hot flame, burning with the brightness of his lightsaber. He would’ve attacked the walls with his own bare hands if it would help. He wanted to shred them to bits with his very teeth. 

Compared to him, General Hux could’ve been a statue carved out of ice. Nevertheless, his triangular ears lying rather flat betrayed his own irritation. He wasn’t paying much attention to Kylo - it seemed he was thinking rather hard about something instead. 

As it happened, both the Supreme Leader of the First Order _and_ his General fell into a trap prepared by the Resistance, and they’ve gotten themselves caught. They were locked in a circular room with a dome-like ceiling, and, worst of all, somehow Kylo’s connection to the force just wasn’t there. He wanted to howl and snap his teeth, he wanted throw his weight against the closed durasteel door. Again. But considering how his shoulder still throbbed, he thought better of it. 

Suddenly a voice filled the room. 

“Aah, what do we have here? Benny-boy and his pinched little fox.” 

The most annoying voice. 

“What did you just call him- I mean _me_?!” Kylo growled, happy the helmet hid his blush. _His_ little fox…

“Are _you_ calling me little, Dameron? Hear, hear.” Hux remarked, a cold smile on his lips. 

Something akin to a sputter came out of the hidden speaker. 

“ _Anyway,_ you two just sit tight. Our fleet is already on the way. Your mother is looking forward to a nice conversation, Ben. Then we can start dismantling that Order of yours.”

“ _What did you do to me, Dameron?!”_ Kylo barked. 

“Oh, you’ve noticed?” came the reply almost immediately, the pilot’s smile audible in it. “We’ve done nothing to _you_ , but a cage with an ysalamir happens to sit on the floor right above you. Troublesome creatures to get, but worth every credit. You know how they work, right?”

“Ysalamir?” Hux repeated, looking at Kylo.

“They repel the force.” Kylo mumbled with chagrin. 

“That they do indeed. You two make yourselves at home now. I need to finish painting Finn’s toes. 

The speaker went silent. 

“ _Dammit!”_ Kylo exclaimed and hit the wall with his fist. He never expected a trick so dirty. Disregarding the pain in his hand, he plopped down on the floor and tried to will the ysalamir dead. Meeting his mother. Hah! That would never happen. It was her who gave him away, her who wasn’t happy with the child she had. She was the first of the throng of people who tried to mould him into someone he wasn’t. Why did none of them want him for who he was?

“Is the sphere of the ysalamir influence weaker down there, Supreme Leader?” Hux suddenly asked. 

“What? No. I was just… uh… thinking.”

Like hell would he admit that his rage turned into something completely unbecoming of one as powerful as him. 

At first he thought Hux was making fun of him, but his expression was earnest. And his ears were still flat. His fluffy ears tipped with black. Kylo couldn’t even read his emotions now. Damn it all to hell. 

“Did you come up with any plan?”

“…no.” Kylo admitted. 

Hux nodded to himself.

“And you?”

The General did not answer at first. He stood above Kylo, his jaw clenched, lips pressed together into a thin line. His ears went flatter and flatter, his brow furrowed, and his tail bristled up. Kylo watched all of that with an honest confusion. Was Hux angry? Was he angry that Kylo was rendered powerless?

And then his eyes suddenly bore into Kylo’s, and there was a great flame in them. And then he took one of his gloves off. Kylo watched the pale curve of the delicate wrist with a strange feeling akin to a swarm of can-cells nestling in his stomach. 

“…to think it has come to this… Supreme Leader. Those gloves of yours are synthetic, right?”

Kylo nodded, his mouth dry for some reason. 

“I need you to rub my tail.”

“-what? You-… why-…what are you asking me so suddenly…? I-… I don’t think…”

_“Quickly! I need you to rub it as fast as possible!”_

The urgency in his voice made Kylo get up and walk over to Hux. He had no idea how would this help, but at least it presented one last distraction before his mother would lock him up for the rest of his days. 

He gave that luxuriously fuzzy tail of soft, silky fur a gentle stroke. Hux’s ears twitched as he almost jumped out of his skin. 

“I said _rub_ , not _stroke_. Rub it as quickly as you can - and quicker.”

Kylo nodded. He sat down on his heels in front of that unearthly thing, put his left hand under it to hold it, and rubbed it with his right. 

“ _Faster.”_ Hux ordered, and Kylo couldn’t find it in himself to be offended by his commandeering tone, not when he noticed how red the tiny sliver he could see of Hux’s nape became. 

And so he rubbed it. 

Rubbed it more. 

Furiously. 

He didn’t disregard the pain from his injured hand anymore, using it to gather more strength instead, to feed his stamina. He began to sweat under his helmet. The muscles of his arms started to stiffen and ache from all the exertion, but Hux was somehow convinced this would help them to get out, and he placed his faith into that determination. 

If he thought that the tail was bushy before, now it was even bushier, and usually Kylo would think about how it would feel against his skin, but at that point he was single-mindedly focused on sliding his hand up and down its surface. The fur rippled under his touch, changing colour as he parted the black-tipped red guard hairs to reveal the tan down fur. Black, rusty, tan. 

Black, rusty, tan. 

black, rusty, tan

black rusty tan

blackrustytan

blackrustan

blackrusan

barusan

busan

buan

ban

bn

...

..

.

Suddenly Hux stepped away, and the loss of contact with his tail snapped Kylo out of his trance. 

He looked up and saw that the hair on Hux’s head was standing up, giving him the appearance of an angry red dandelion puff. He would’ve found it comical, but then Hux walked towards the nearest wall and placed his bare hand on it. Even before he touched the durasteel surface, bright blue bolts of electric discharge jumped out of it and hit the wall with a crack so loud it clipped the audio system of Kylo’s helmet. 

And everything went dark. 

After a couple of moments the emergency generators kicked in and bathed the whole space station in red light. The door was now an empty rectangle of blackness, and before Kylo could ask how in the stars did Hux do that, the General bolted out, the white tip of his tail shining like a beacon. 

_Right. Escape_. - Kylo thought to himself and followed. 

He caught up to Hux within several moments, and together they ran towards the hangar. The _Silencer_ was already waiting. Kylo unlocked it and jumped inside, seating himself in front of the controls as Hux closed the hatch. It was high time to jump into hyperspace. The Resistance fleet was approaching the station fast, spearheaded by a swarm of X-wings. 

Only once the pinpricks of stars were smeared into unending bands of light did he allow a sigh of relief to escape him as he removed his helmet. He sank into the backrest, spread out his legs and tried to shake the exhaustion out of his arms. He _hurt_. But something was still wrong. 

“That’s strange. I still can’t use the force.” He wondered out loud. 

“Maybe the ysalamir effect takes some time to fade.” Hux suggested. 

“…yeah. Maybe it does.”

The rest of the journey was uneventful, as Kylo spent most of it asleep. 

Once the _Silencer_ safely landed in the _Finalizer’s_ hangar bay, he marched out, looking forward to a nice, hot shower and a good meal. 

Hux followed him three or four steps behind. His tail was still all fuzzy, but if one was to look carefully, one would see something _moving_ on its underside. 

Hux’s expression was still unreadable, but his ears were now all perked up and pointy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Poe spilled nail polish all over Finn's toes as a result of Hux's actions. They both swore they would get their revenge.)

**Author's Note:**

> Spur-of-the-moment fic, which most likely sprung up in my head as a reaction to TRoS and the constant arguing it gave birth to about who deserved what and why not. I hope it'll cheer people up at least a little bit. 
> 
> Kudos and comments will be much appreciated.


End file.
